Meanings
alternative a whole 'nother
- USinformalproscribedusuallyAn intensified form of another: an entirely different; a whole other.
It's a whole nother bunch of folks over beyond the trees 'cross the tracks.
1992, Thulani Davis, chapter 6, in 1959 […], New York, N.Y.: Grove Weidenfeld, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 2825 more examples
"Will the fog be gone by to-morrow morning?" said Patty, disconsolately. "I don't know what we shall do if we have to be a whole 'nother day in the house and in the dark."
1887 October 29, [Mary Louisa] Molesworth, “The Mysterious Guide: A Story of a London Fog”, in [Charles Peters], editor, The Girl’s Own Paper, volume IX, number 409, London: “The Leisure Hour” Office, →OCLC, page 67, column 3They say she look like she have a turtle shell on her back and the healing woman healed that. But that's a whole nother story.
1998, Gayl Jones, chapter 1, in The Healing, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, →ISBN, page 18The problem is when you physically try to impede my progress—then it moves up to a whole 'nother level that you probably can't handle me on. If it's just words, mean little things, I'm not [Joseph] Stalin, say what you want. Get in my way, it's a whole 'nother thing.
2004, Michael W. Dean, quoting Henry Rollins, “Interviews”, in $30 Music School, Boston, Mass.: Muska & Lipman, Course Technology, →ISBN, page 457The breeze taps my face with a robe-corner. A lazy blueness, from a whole nother age, is spread all above me.
2004, Margo Lanagan, “Rite of Spring”, in Black Juice, London: Gollancz, published 2007, →ISBN, page 195Executing it all well, with the feel, look and operation of a real luxury car, is a whole nother ball of wax.
2009 October 1, Don Chaikin, “Long-Term Test Cars: Azera, Sedon M35, Highlander Hybrid, Liberty Sport CRD, Cobalt SS”, in Jim Meigs, editor, Popular Mechanics, New York, N.Y.: The Hearst Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2013
Origin
Cite this entry
a whole nother. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20whole%20nother
“a whole nother.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20whole%20nother. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “a whole nother,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20whole%20nother.
Source: a whole nother on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.